Media Release - Notice of Motion to Christchurch City Council re Letter to Minister of Education - Please explain

"It turns out that 'investment' was a euphemism for what the Minister really had in mind for many of the schools in Christchurch - and that was their closure or merger - a course of action which the Ministry never once signalled when it spoke at a Council Earthquake forum on August 16 2012, prior to the announcement of school closures and mergers on September 13 2012", says City Councillor Glenn Livingstone, who is now questioning whether the Council was mis-led.

With the Minister of Education's recommendations on the shape of schools in Christchurch due at the end of May, City Councillor Glenn Livingstone is seeking support from the Christchurch City Council this Thursday to write to the Minister with its concerns.

"My view is that it is of serious concern that the Ministry, knowing what their intention was for many Christchurch schools, never declared that intent to the city's elected representatives when it visited them during a public meeting of the Council", Livingstone says. "And I would like to know why they kept that intention hidden from the Council."

"Christchurch schools have been asking the Council to respond to the Minister's proposed actions", says Livingstone "and this letter is seeking to give voice to the Council's concerns."

The letter that Cr. Livingstone is aiming to convey to the Minister through the Council by way of Notice of Motion is seeking a response to the process and the rationale the Minister has used in announcing school closures and mergers. Specifically it is asking the Minister to explain why changes for Christchurch schools were mooted against a threatening backdrop of closures and mergers; the timing of the proposed changes, in the immediate aftermath of New Zealand's worst natural disaster, when school communities and families are stressed; the factual basis for the future changes when information such as census data is yet to be released, giving accurate information of demographic changes and why, in the CERA acknowledged 'third year' of social challenge, schools will close and merge.

LETTER TO THE MINISTER

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Dear Minister

We are writing to you asking for a response to our concerns regarding the re-structuring of education in Christchurch.

While it is recognised there may be a need for change, we have concerns about the manner in which decisions for change have been made and the information on which these have been. We seek your response to:

1. In meetings between the Ministry of Education and the Council, via the Council's Earthquake Forum the Council was informed of a forthcoming 'investment' by the Ministry in education in Christchurch. This investment was signalled prior to the first announcements of school closures and mergers. Can you please explain why these closures and mergers were not signalled as being part of the initial consultation process with us?

2. Communities and schools were not given a reasonable and fair chance to discuss what a future educational outcome could look like without the threat of closure or merger hanging over them. This process would have resulted in better community buy in and better results. Can you please explain why communities and schools were not given a reasonable and fair opportunity to discuss what a future could look like for them without these closures and mergers?

3. Many members of the communities to be affected by proposed closure or mergers had their living conditions compromised following the February 22 2011 earthquake, and subsequent seismic events. There is still uncertainty regarding the future. Why have the proposals been initiated at such a stressful and uncertain time for these affected communities?

4. We are concerned that the planning undertaken during this process in a city following a natural disaster does not give sufficient consideration to the research on post-natural disaster trends and the affects on the city's inhabitants. There is uncertainty over demographic figures with many communities experiencing a return of residents or new arrivals to the city assisting with the rebuild. We ask then, that your final decisions take cognisance of the affect the proposed changes to schooling will have on our communities so recently following the earthquakes.

5. CERA recognises that Christchurch has entered a 'third year' , referred to by Dr. Rob Gordon in his public statements. It will be a period of sustained challenge in relation to the city's social well-being, and the affects are already noticeable in our communities. The current time frame of the proposed changes for the beginning of 2014 coincide with the third year anniversary period. With regard to this time of anticipated change, we ask that you inform us as to how your final recommendations will give consideration to the on-going difficulties that our communities are facing.

6. We suggest the Christchurch change process may be self-defeating in its aim to improve student achievement. The proposed closures and mergers, seem to have been made without due consideration to the life-changing impact on Christchurch communities. The proposals have disrupted the teaching and learning environments of our most vulnerable and worst hit communities bringing great distress to parents and students compounding the difficulties already faced by many in those schools. Staff have also been affected by the disaster and continue to cope with the on-going and changing needs of their school communities.

We ask that your response will clarify the reasons for such drastic changes to our school system at a time when it forms such an important stabilising feature and resource for its communities.

ENDS

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